Black African Story

By Isaac B Thomas

In Black African Story, Isaac attempts to expose reasons for Black people’s failure to get along at the same pace with other races in terms of technological advancement and economic prosperity. He discusses reasons that some sections of the immediate black society are not keen in discussing, such as cultural reforms. The book offers possible solutions with much emphasis on Zimbabwe and Malawi as case studies.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Apr 3, 2019
• ISBN: 9781728381824

Isaac B Thomas

Isaac B. Thomas is a Malawian and property professional currently working in Pretoria. He was born in Zimbabwe after his parents emigrated from Malawi during the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland and settled in the then Southern Rhodesia (present day Zimbabwe). As a Black African citizen he is obsessed by the continent’s lagging in almost all spheres of human endeavor while other races seem to be achieving effortlessly. While many others discuss reasons why, Isaac has decided to take a practical step further. He shares with like-minded Black people any were in the world in general and in Africa in particular his insights into how solutions can be secured. He discusses reasons for the Black race’s failure to catch up with others and how it can run while others run so as to catch up with them.

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Copyright © 2019 Isaac B Thomas. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 04/02/2019

ISBN: 978-1-7283-8171-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-7283-8182-4 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Dedication

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1    The Black African Perspective – the Age of Awareness

Chapter 2    Detrimental Aid

Chapter 3    Africa’s Tipping Point

Chapter 4    Black African History

Chapter 5    The African Diaspora

Chapter 6    The Black African Re-orientation; a Cultural Transformation

Chapter 7    Leadership Crisis in Africa – The Fiddling Nero

Chapter 8    Racial Disparity

Chapter 9    Black Africa: the most backward place on earth

Chapter 10    Environment versus its inhabitants – Environmental Psychology

Chapter 11    Tackling Poverty in Malawi

Chapter 12    Some African Economic Models and why they failed

Chapter 13    Black Africa – An Uninfluential Race

Chapter 14    Africa’s Lost Opportunity – The Thomas Sankara Legacy

Chapter 15    Contemporary Black Africa on the world stage

Chapter 16    From Berlin Conference to Beijing Conference

Chapter 17    Bad Stats

Chapter 18    Isaac’s Contentions

Chapter 19    The Way Forward – A New Black Africa

Bibliography

Dedication

To my mother Ellah, who has been my inspiration throughout my life and my daughter Rosemary who helped with proof reading

I also wish to dedicate this book to the millions of Black Africans across Africa south of the Tropic of Cancer who languish in poverty and I wish to encourage them with this message: Do not lose heart for the sun is about to rise on the continent.

Preface

Only after I started writing this book did I realise how charged the subject really is. I struggled to figure out how to politely and respectfully put my point across without stepping on other people’s toes. Each time I attempted to, my point would become diluted and would mean what I didn’t intend. I do not mean to upset certain sections of the world communities rather to say my heart out with the intention of identifying the seemingly elusive solutions to Black Africa’s socio-economic and political challenges. The UN, AU, Commonwealth, G8, various European nations, America, regional bodies such as SADC, ECOWAS, and at home have been fiddling about the issue of Africa’s poverty for decades but up to date they all have not been able to come up with tangible solutions to the problems. Some have solutions but they would rather not bring them up because Africa’s continued poverty is their ticket to enrich their foreign governments and corporate entities. Some have the capacity to establish the solution but they are preoccupied with self-aggrandisement. Sadly some are sincerely confused; they don’t know what to do though they wish for Africa to develop. Yet a significant population don’t have solutions and they don’t care.

This book is not an academic or PhD thesis through which I seek a pat on the back from my faculty for being an excellent researcher. At the time of writing I am not a politician trying to woo the electorate into voting for me or an Uncle Tom trying to please western capitalists into greasing my palms. I am not a professional writer seeking to eke out a living out of authorship. I am not a fame seeker either. I am not a Europe or America even Africa pleaser. I do not intend to make friends as a result of this book though I would be happy to. It is not my intention to create enemies either, though I know I will. I urge all readers to approach this book objectively and to accept this work with rational, open minds and not to take it personally. Out of the host of reasons for writing this book chief is that I have observed that fellow genuinely concerned Black Africans have written well researched and articulated materials on the subject of Africa’s poor performance and left it there. They are lighting a lamp and putting it under a table. I’m taking a step further. Read on.

Much as it is my intention to appeal to all my readers, I am not unaware of the fact that it will be impossible. However it would be a failure should this book not appeal to those fellow Black Africans who live in extreme poverty in rural areas and urban slums who cannot extricate themselves from the jaws and grip of penury since their leaders have abandoned them as they rub shoulders with the 1st world capitalists. To this group of people it really matters how I present myself because they occupy a special part in my heart for the simple reason – I am one of them. That is why I have presented it in layman’s terms so that the intended audience will appreciate it. So for the first time the issue of Africa’s poor economic performance and serious effort to right wrong is being addressed by the victims not the lavish elite gangsters at AU, SADC meetings or all white European or American panellists who must first fetch a dictionary to familiarise themselves with the word poverty. For the same reason a male teenager cannot be the best representative for women’s reproductive health issues, Europeans, Chinese or Americans are not the best suited institutions to interrogate Africa’s developmental matters. Black Africans are.

This is the close to 50% population of ASC that survives on $1 or less per day. They do not have decent employment from which they derive decent incomes and subsequently decent lives. They cannot send their children to school and those who, against all odds do, the children attend school under unimaginably difficult and appalling conditions. They have little or no access to clean, safe drinking water, they travel long distances often on foot, wheel barrows or oxen or donkey drawn carts to reach the nearest health centre which in most cases is manned by an inadequately qualified nurse. They do not have electricity so they do not have TV, radio or computers as a result they are not in touch with global goings-on technologically or otherwise. They engage in extremely labour intensive subsistence agriculture from which they have no assured future. A family of more than 10 members wakes up as early as 3 am to till with hoes a piece of land for 12 hours that one tractor in the OECD country can conveniently do in 45 minutes under one man operation. They possess neither life insurance nor savings nor any meaningfully valued assets so when they die all their children inherit and perpetuate is their poverty. They own untitled properties as their rural houses and lands are unrecognized within the national property system. Consequently they possess no collateral so they cannot access the much needed loans for their agricultural operations. Greg Mills will agree as evidenced by a statement in his book Why Africa is Poor? in which he says that Africa’s traditional land holding structures have also been an impediment to entrepreneurship. Communal land holding has impeded the collateralization of land value through individual ownership and mortgage schemes. There has been indifference among the leadership of many African countries to reform the systems.

They did not have access to education so they are illiterate; they do not understand basic life enhancing concepts such as contraception so they have super large families which are expensive to care for as they are beyond their affordability ambit. With a life span of about 48 years they die before any real life achievement. Manageable diseases like malaria wreak havoc such that deaths are a common occurrence. They do not have vehicles they travel long distances of up to 30km on foot or 10 hours for an economic activity worth $5. They cannot afford clothing expenses so they possess few garments as clothes, most of which are tattered and torn which hardly get washed as soap by virtue of its cost is considered a luxury. They do not normally take balanced diet since their staple food is the thick porridge and vegetables which lack basic nutrients and according to the MGDS II (the Joyce Banda Economic Recovery Strategy for 2011-2016) the Malawi Government recognizes that malnutrition is a silent crisis. Many children especially in the rural areas are characterized by high levels of nutrition disorders such as stunting, wasting and underweight. More than 20% of children do not attain their 6th birthday as more than 25% of women die unnecessarily in child bearing. Simple issues such as hygiene take a toll on their lives as they do not have piped water and no articulated toilet systems. As a result communicable diseases such as cholera easily spread with apocalyptic consequences.

They cannot afford a holiday so they are born, raised and die in a village or township slum.

That’s arduous living,

Not everyone who comes to you offering to help you really wants to help. It takes the intelligent person to discern the hidden intentions of the self-proclaimed Good Samaritan. To ASC Europe is not a Good Samaritan. America is not a Good Samaritan and now China is not a Good Samaritan. They are all evil partners with nefarious intentions. One thing African leaders and the common African population have frighteningly not realised is that Europe’s or white people’s exploitative perception of Africa has not changed since the 14th Century when they first appeared. They still see Africa as a nation to exploit for their own benefit by any means possible even if it means smiling at Africans even if they may not necessarily love them. Since there are now educated people on the continent of Africa the former colonizers and the new imperialistic friend, China know that buying Africa’s time is the only way to steal from the continent. They are bent on creating a mirage so that it appears something is cooking. How many times have we heard of impressive figures? Botswana is the fastest growing economy in the world. Africa’s economy is poised to grow by 30% in 25 years. Poverty has been reduced by 60% since 1960 in Africa. No more guns on African soil. From Afro-pessimism to Afro-euphoria and numerous others.

Subtly they lure African Presidents to Amsterdam for the vaguely important Nobel Peace Prize over dubious achievements to hoodwink them into believing that the West are good friends. Almost every friend of the West from Joyce Banda to Bingu wa Mutharika, to Yoweri Museveni, Jacob Zuma, Ellen Sirleaf, Uhuru Kenyatta and a host of other dismally performing African heads of state have in their shelves awards and silverware from American universities and other institutions while poverty, unemployment, child mortality, illiteracy in their respective countries relentlessly bedevil their fellow citizens. It is not only good figures and good news alone that poor Black Africans demand. Good figures are for the AU, SADC, Oxford University and Harvard University or UN publications in high definition gloss paper. Poor people need positive and tangible results. The situation on the ground must improve. A situation where people have dignified jobs, own and live in decent housing, are able to access up to standard health facilities with ease, have access to good quality education, can enjoy retirement and they live longer than the current life span. Of what help is it to inform Africa of its good economic growth and prospects while its people languish in poverty? It’s more than 500 years since Europeans first interacted with Africa and their association has not helped Africa. On the contrary it has immensely helped Europe. And Africans are still hoping for help from Europe. That is dumb hope. I believe in persistence and keeping on pushing but the persistence must also be wielding some intelligence.

A Facebook commentator wrote All the drum beats are now about Afro-euphoria, Africa rising, Growth, Growth, Growth! Africa is the future. African governments are now able to attract investors. And they would do anything for that

However a friend replied:

Growth isn’t that important. After all, the economy of the American South grew", but where black slaves better treated as a result?

While criticism is welcome it should also be noted that the content and tone of this book will not change. This book is not pushing for ending poverty, rather to redefine poverty. What contemporary society has accepted as poverty is in-fact human rights violations and betrayal of the people by their leadership. This book concedes that every society is bound to have its poor and its wealthy citizens. However it is the extreme low levels of poverty and the gap between the poor and the rich that it contends with.

Introduction

Africa is a continent that lies between roughly 35°N and 35°S. Its furthest mainland tip to the east is on 50° and to the west 17°. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north which separates it from Europe, the Indian Ocean to the east, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south. It has a land mass of 30.22 million km². Africa means ‘sunny land without cold’, possibly originating from Greek, during the time when North Africa was part of the Roman Empire with Carthage (modern day Tunisia) as one of its provinces.

It is home to 1,46 billion people, of whom 973 million are residents in the region they call sub-Saharan Africa a rather contemptuous and derogatory term which I shall use just this once, and not again. I would rather call it ‘Africa south of the Tropic of Cancer’ - ASC. This region has a combined nominal GDP of $1,9 trillion which is about one tenth of the nominal GDP of the USA.

Africa has a distinct geographically beautiful shape. It is strategically located for global geo-economics. There are 55 geographical countries on the continent seven of which are Arab. The rest are located in the area south of the Tropic of Cancer. Six island nations are politically, culturally and historically part of the African continent namely Seychelles, Mauritius, Sao Tome & Principe, Cape Verde, Comoros and Madagascar. Black Africa South of the Cancer has more than 7 500 ethnic groups.

Africa’s racial diversity includes Arabs of North Africa, whites, Asians and coloureds. It has Black people too and they constitute the bulk of the population. They are predominantly of Bantu origin. Originating in the area around present day Nigeria and Cameroon, they migrated to the interior over a period of 1 500 years. The reasons for the migrations were (among others): search for land for agriculture after having adopted animal domestication and agricultural methods after abandoning nomadism; population growth, adventure, conflicts and famine. Africa is one of the five continents of the world and has the least Human Development Index (HDI) and the highest infant and maternal mortality rates. Africa has a great history of peoples with great cultures and civilizations. But it also has a very bad and regrettable history which was not supposed to be part of its story, regrettably it is, the history of exploitation, degradation, humiliation through slavery and colonization. While it’s not only Africa that suffered slavery and colonization, it is obvious Africa has been the worst victim of these diabolical institutions. Why?

It is in the interests of Africa’s socio-economic progress to bury the past, allow wounds to heal and forge a new today and a new tomorrow to become the global torch bearer in all spheres of earthly life. This is where the whole problems lie. There seems not to be any movements towards African integration into global politics and economics as excellently as it is portrayed on paper and media. The greatest question every politically conscious Black African person asks is why? This book attempts to answer that question and offer solid solutions for Black Africa’s way forward.

This work is premised on this fundamental principle: that God created the earth and all that’s underneath and above it as well as in its waters and created the human race to govern and benefit from those resources. Genesis 1:28-30 confirms this. He endowed it with sufficient resources for all humanity each and every one of them – (without exception regardless of their social, religious, political or racial status). All human beings are thus entitled to an appropriate share of the benefit from these resources be they female or male, Black or white, educated or uneducated, religious or not. But certain few individuals, due to careful planning or mere good fortune, have accumulated more than they require, at the expense of the unfortunate multitude. Just as every human being, without exception is a product of the fusion of the male and female gametes, so every human being must live a life of basic adequacy. Just as every human being has a heart, so every human being must have bread. As long as one does not the immediate society must leap into action to correct the anomaly. God is not unintelligent enough to create an earth with an undersupply of all humans’ basic needs for decent survival. So all the human suffering that’s in the world today be it in Africa’s rural areas and urban slums, South Asia, or Latin America is all human creation. The good thing about anything created by humans is that it can be destroyed by humans. What is man-made can be man-ended. The rapacity which the world has mistakenly embraced as acceptable human achievement through what it erroneously calls hard work just has to be brought to an end. This book affirms that if only one out of the 6 500 000 000 citizens of the earth is poor then the whole earth or at least those immediately around him must attend to that citizen until he is living like the rest. Poor in this book means extreme lack of basic requirements for basic human survival. It is worth noting however that poor people are bound to be amongst the populations of the earth no matter what but the extent of their poverty must not go beyond certain limits.

It should therefore be universally accepted that no sublunary being holding public office shall possess a right to a loaf of bread so long as the person on his right or left has not even half a slice. Before he puts the loaf of bread in his bag he must make sure the person on his right has at least enough to survive, failure of which he becomes an enemy of humanity and attempts must be made by those many who possess no half a slice each to seize the loaf from him for equitable sharing among the many based on the following:

1. God endowed the earth with resources sufficient for all humans’ survival – all of them without exception.

2. He did not have that loaf of bread because of his personal intelligence but because of exploiting what naturally belongs to everybody. The majority trusted him to make enough loaves of bread for everybody but somewhere in the process, he diverted the loaves of bread to his own basket. He has abused the trust the majority invested in him and must be made to let go of those loaves of bread that are wrongfully on his shelf and put them where they ought to be (he too has a right to adequate bread).

3. If any other person was to be put in his position they could still have made enough loaves of bread for everybody. However not everyone should be priviledged to take care of the bread making process at the same time. So he must not consider himself as superior as a god because he was entrusted to make sure there is adequate supply of loaves of bread on the land. It is criminal to promise sufficient supply of loaves of bread when you have neither the intention nor the capacity.

Africa has gone through numerous stages in its history. From prehistoric times to the cradle of humankind, to the Stone Age, to slavery, to colonization, to self-rule and now it must enter the era of sufficient bread for everybody. In fact it is as criminal to be breadless as it is to possess many loaves when one person does not have half a slice. The present economic system was created by persons who were full of pleonexia. They gave no thought to certain sections of societies. Right minded human beings must work hard to come up with acceptable systems in which no one goes without. Right-mindedness must conquer evil-mindedness. Every human being has a right to basic sufficiency.

It must be accepted though that it cannot be achieved within a generation or two but work to change the status quo must commence immediately.

Just after WW2 African nationalism was the talk of the day when the likes of Kwame Nkrumah, Jomo Kenyatta, Julius Nyerere, Amilcar Cabral, Namdi Azikiwe, Kenneth Kaunda, Robert Mugabe, Nelson Mandela and many others decided to show the world that the wrong the white race could not be counted on to put right the wrong they had done. They tried to suppress the rights of Blacks by denying them decent education, housing, jobs, health facilities, right to vote and so on. (I admit though that these systems were non-existent they were introduced by Europeans – a good thing) When the nationalists started to question the diabolical racist systems, the colonial governments dismissed them as day dreamers until 1957 came and today Africa is free. Or is it? Then, the nationalists concentrated so much on political freedom that they neglected economic development. So in a way we can give them credit for achieving our political independence (though they did not bother to explain why they had to be wrestling the nation from foreign domination in the first place), but rebuke them for failing to build strong democratic and economic systems. We recognize that it was a failure in leadership. As a new generation we question why there had to be a struggle to reclaim our sovereignty. It was treasonous to betray our heritage into hands of foreigners. Where was leadership when the nation was falling into foreign hands? They have some explanation to do.

When they seized power they ought to have handed it over to able and brilliant technocrats tasked with guiding the baby Africa to economic and social growth premised on the principle of Africanism which says that everyone has a right to good quality life. Because of greed they held on to power until they destroyed what they had built. Now a new wave of nationalism is slowly rising again on the continent with the aim of bringing a change, a real change so that Africans can at last live like human beings. Probably these are the winds of change Harold Macmillan spoke about because those that blew in the 1960’s were not strong enough. They only bent the reeds, leaving the trees firmly rooted in the earth. Just as the results of political struggle where first experienced in Ghana then spread across the continent, it appears the results of economic emancipation will be first experienced in Malawi and they will equally spread across the continent.

Botswana? Namibia? Not as long as there are five people living on less than $1 per day.

Much as Botswana has attained better progress than many on the continent, its few citizens who languish in poverty taint Botswana’s economic performance and eclipse its success story. There is poverty and there are slums in Scandinavia but it is hard for them to describe it as poverty because what they call poverty would be an advanced life in ASC. ASC must work hard to surpass that and for once be the envy of other races on earth.

CHAPTER 1

The Black African Perspective – the Age of Awareness

Because they made it, we must outpace them

I am a Black African. I was born in Africa. My domicile is Africa. I live among fellow Black Africans. My culture and background are Black African. The history my father taught me is Black African. My destiny lies in Black Africa. Therefore, Black Africa is in me, and I am in Black Africa. I understand Black Africa, though sometimes it confuses me. I love it too.

Have you ever pondered over the possibility of ASC (Africa south of Tropic of Cancer) being a force to be reckoned with globally in terms of economics, politics, technology and religion? This book delves into unfamiliar avenues. It discusses what you most likely already know, albeit from a different perspective. But it also discusses what journalists have conveniently forgotten to address, what schools have trivialised, what the church has chosen not to sermonize, what politicians have considered irrelevant and what Black African society has had to reluctantly accept as the status quo. Today, quite a significant magnitude of rural Black Africa is as technologically backward as it was a thousand years ago. This includes South Africa which is a paragon of industrialization on the African continent.

This book emphasizes Black Africa, though the African continent is home not only to Black people; however they are the majority and the worst victims of poverty. There are Caucasians and people of Asian background. This work will not dwell much on these people. Africa has two major racial distinctions Black people and the Arabs from North Africa namely Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Libya, Western Sahara, Mauritania and the Sudan. The white population in Africa is hardly affected by the rampant poverty, unemployment, illiteracy or hunger that bedevil the continent. For the few who are, the numbers are negligible. As a result, this book explores issues pertaining to Black people or people living in Africa south of the Tropic of the Cancer.

The population of Africa south of the Tropic of Cancer is 900 000 000 out of the almost 1.5 billion inhabitants of the continent. They live in a place with the highest levels of poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, underdevelopment, backwardness, high infant and maternal mortality, and many other ills one can think about. Scholars have come up with many probable causes of Africa’s predicament. Among them are slavery, colonization, foreign aid, corruption, inept leadership and geographic disadvantage. There are places in Africa that have not experienced any change at all for the past one thousand years. In other words, people there live in conditions similar to what their ancestors did a thousand years ago. What’s surprising is that these people have leaders, including presidents, religious leaders, civic leaders, academic fraternity, and captains of industry. One wonders whether these leaders are aware of the conditions under which their people languish, or perhaps they simply choose not to care. It is disturbing that out of the more than three hundred presidents who have presided over African governments since Kwame Nkrumah, none of them has any idea how poverty can be eradicated, how employment can be created or how development can be attained without engaging Europe, China, or the United States in terms of receiving aid. When the so called first world developed, they did not consult Africans. Why should Africans consult them?

Development for Black Africa rests in the hands and minds of Black Africans. The concept of relying on foreign aid must come to an end. Someone from one household in a neighbourhood can never bring development into the household of a neighbour because it’s just not meant to be so. There is no way the United States will ever bring development to ASC. If I were the United States I wouldn’t. It just doesn’t make sense, and it’s not morally or legally wrong for them not to. They gather all their energies to develop their own country. Part of the US presidential oath of office is to faithfully execute the office of the president of the United States and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the United States. Nowhere in the US Constitution does it say it will be obligated to serve the interests of other nations on earth. At the 2010 Young African Leaders White House meeting, President Barak Obama took questions from the promising young African leaders. In answering one of them, he reiterated the fact that as US president, his job is to serve the interests of Americans. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

He is not working towards developing other nations, because they did not vote him into power – and they couldn’t. It is extraordinarily surprising to note the extent to which Black Africa expects the United States to bring development to its doorstep. This will never happen. The quicker Black Africa understands and accepts this, the better. Even if it were to happen that way, knowing that it was developed by other nations won’t bring pride to Africa. It’s good it didn’t happen because our history would have been soiled. Our descendants would learn their ancestors had to be rescued by other nations. And other nations would say, Had it not been for us. An intelligent person would not be proud to own a beautiful car, exquisite household furniture, beautiful gardens, and nice food all courtesy of a neighbour. We toil for